1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a compression device and a method for adjustment of a compression pressure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Compression devices are used in many technical fields in which it is necessary, for example, to compress an object or a number of objects, to adjust the thickness of an object, or to seal a leak of an object. Possible technical fields are, among other things, material sciences, food monitoring and medical technology.
Compression devices are used in the medical field in, among other things, mammography and for biopsy procedures. A compression device normally has a compression plate provided for compression of the subject to be examined (the female breast in the case of mammography). Today the compression is normally implemented with rigid, inflexible compression plates. The compression device together with the rigid compression plate is displaced relative to a bearing table on which the subject to be examined or to be compressed is supported. In mammography the compression by means of a rigid compression plate often causes pain in the breast during the compression.
By having a large number of differently-shaped rigid compression plates available, which are respectively adapted to different sizes and shapes of female breasts, it is sought to be able to select and prepare a compression plate best adapted for a specific patient.
The compression serves to reduce the breast tissue to be x-rayed in terms of its thickness in the case of mammography with x-rays, so scatter rays are reduced, as well as causing the breast to be more spaced from the thorax during the examination, so a surface-proximal examination of the breast is enabled.